Chinese Take Out
by Dark Pikachu
Summary: Ryoga and Akane bond over take out and chopsticks.


-1All characters owned by Rumiko Takahashi.

Editor's Note: For John Biles, who wanted Chinese, Dinner, and Disaster as his three prompts when I asked for suggestions for Ryoga/Akane stories.

Chinese Takeout

by

Dark Pikachu

For what must have been the tenth time that night, Akane Tendo found herself apologizing to Ryoga Hibiki for destroying his kitchen.

"Really, Ryoga. I'm so sorry."

"Akane, I told you, it's alright." The former Lost Boy sighed warily. "Just so long as you help me clean up after dinner I'll forgive you."

Of course, Ryoga knew that he would forgive Akane even if she didn't help him clean his kitchen, that's what you did when you loved someone (even if you were too scared to tell that person, despite knowing them for almost seven years and being their best friend for five of those years).

"Now eat your sweet & sour chicken, it's getting cold." He tapped his chopsticks on the side of the takeout box from the Cat Cafe, one of several sitting on his dining room table. "I still don't understand why you decided to sneak in here to try to cook dinner for me tonight of all times."

Akane blushed and put her chopsticks down, scratching the back of her head as she said "I wanted to thank you for yesterday when you stopped by the dojo and helped me with the new students."

"Akane, I was glad to help, it's no big deal." Ryoga missed the blushing, being too consumed with trying to use his chopsticks to dig a carrot slice out of his box of fried rice.

"But you're always helping me when you don't have to," Akane protested.

"You're trying to start a new business, Akane. That's hard enough, but when you're trying to do it without any help from your family, you need all the help you can get. It's no problem, really."

"I just feel like I'm always taking advantage of you, so I wanted to come over here and make you a nice home cooked meal. You always complain about eating takeout since Akari left you, so I thought this would be a nice way of paying you back." She sniffled.

"Instead, I end up messing up your kitchen and we end up getting takeout once again." In retrospect she probably shouldn't have tried to cook lobster thermador for Ryoga using a live lobster. She should have bought a pre-cooked lobster from the seafood market. At the very least she shouldn't have chosen a live lobster that was so ferocious looking and who almost snapped the neck of the poor seafood market clerk as he wrestled to put it in a pot for her. Still, the sight of Akane using her subspace hammer to duel with a lobster in Ryoga's kitchen was one that neither would forget anytime soon.

"Nothing went according to plan tonight" Akane said sadly. "You were going to come home and I would have the lobster cooked, the lights would be low, and we'd have a nice candlelit dinner."

"Akane, it's-"

"And then afterwards I'd tell you how thankful I'd been for all your help these last few months as I tried to open the dojo. Co-signing the business loan for me, helping me put flyers all over Nerima, helping me teach the classes"

She took his free hand, the one that wasn't trying to use chopsticks to grip egg noodles and began to softly stroke it as she said, "Then I'd tell you that I had grown to appreciate you more recently, more than I did when we were still kids and I was hung up on Ranma all the time. I'd say that my feelings towards you had started to change over the last few weeks, and that honestly, I was starting to view you as more than just my best friend."

The egg noodles were forgotten now, Ryoga's full attention focused on the beautiful martial artist sitting across the table from him.

"And then after dinner, I'd explain that I had made dessert. You would become confused, because there would be no dessert anywhere in sight. And then I'd start to unbutton my blouse," she did just that, her free hand moving to undo the top four buttons on her pink blouse, revealing a lacy black bra that sent Ryoga's heart rate soaring as Akane's top came completely undone.

"You would begin trembling," and indeed he was, "and then I'd take both of your hands," and indeed she did, "and lead you to the bedroom where we would make love all night long."

"Unfortunately," she let go of his hands, "I ruined your kitchen, and it's more important that we clean that than worry about dessert-" She was cut off from further descriptions of her plans to clean the kitchen as Ryoga pulled her in close for a kiss.

It was a sweet kiss, very different from the ones she had shared with Ranma, who always seemed to kiss her more because it was expected of him rather than because he wanted to.

When they finally came up for air, Ryoga said "Forget about the kitchen for tonight. I think we should spend more time sampling this dessert you made."

Akane smiled. "Good idea, though on second thought maybe getting Chinese takeout wasn't such a bad idea after all."

"How so?" Ryoga asked as they moved towards the bedroom.

"Well," Akane said mischievously, "whenever you eat Chinese, twenty minutes later you're hungry for more.

END


End file.
